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Swimming wristbands used to improve school swimming safety.

CHILDREN on school swimming excursions should be identified as swimmers and non-swimmers by coloured wrist bands and more lifeguards should monitor them, said a coroner who has held the Department of Education and a council swimming pool responsible for the death of an eight-year-old girl.

An indicent where a young girl drowned at a Swim Centre in December 2006 has sparked schools and swimming facilities all over New Zealand to engage in a higher standard of safety and awareness.

"I don't want to see another child die in a swimming centre on a school supervised day," A teacher said. "It shouldn't ever happen." He recommended that coloured wrist bands should be used at unstructured school swimming days to identify swimmers and non-swimmers, and that the number of supervising lifeguards should be increased from one for every 100 students to one for every 50.

Schools from NSW and Victoria are already using these wristbands colour coded in Red for non swimmers, Yellow for weak and green for strong swimmers. Something so simple could save so many lives.

These school wristbands are already being supplied to schools from NSW, Victoria and QLD. They are available in any quantity and are often kept in stock and availability on overnight shipping to most area's.

School swim wristbands offer added precaution to children who are not yet adept at swimming or being in deep water, these wristbands alone make it easier for teachers and life guards to identify different swimming groups and levels of swimming skill.